The Spell of the Rockies Part 14

The entire region is a wild-flower garden. Bloom-time lasts all summer long. The scores of streams which splash down from the snows are fringed with ferns and blossoms. There are many areas petalled with red, blue, purple, and gold. Difference of alt.i.tude, topography, and moisture-distribution induce nearly a thousand varieties to bloom in and to color this glad wild garden. July is white with Mariposa lilies. Wild roses, sweet peas, daisies, tiger lilies, violets, orchids, primroses, fringed blue gentians give their color and their perfume to the friendly air. Here flourishes the Rocky Mountain columbine.

The region is gladdened with many kinds of birds. On the heights lives the serene, self-contained ptarmigan; the "camp-bird" resides in the upland forests; hummingbirds flit here and there; the robin sings and re-sings its song over the lowlands; blackbirds swing on the willows by the brooks; the wise magpie spreads his spotted wings and explores every corner. Along the cascading streams is the darling bird of the Rockies, the cheerful water-ouzel. Here, too, the hermit thrush charms the air with a wonderful wealth of melody, and here the solitaire, perhaps the most inspiring of all songsters, pours his divine melody amid pines, crags, and the sounds of winds and falling waters.

Numerous trails wind through this region, and over these one may visit Specimen Mountain, an old volcano, Fern and Odessa Lakes,--splendid tree-bordered alpine tarns,--Wild Basin, Locke Vale, Wind River, Glacier Gorge, and the summit of Long's Peak. The Flat-Top trail is the greatest one; this touches a variety of scenes, crosses the continental divide at twelve thousand feet, and connects Grand Lake and Estes Park.

This splendid natural recreation-ground might well "be held for the use of the people." It is close to the geographical centre of the country, is easily accessible, has an excellent climate, and as a National Park it would become a scenic resource of enormous and exhaustless richness.

THE END